This week my sister-in-law, Deanna, sent us a Flat Stanley to show around town. We have a list of places we're going to take him before we send him away, but one of our musts was to get a picture of Stanley with a moose. I was worried because I hadn't seen any moose in almost a month, but we figured we'd have a good chance of spotting one if we headed to Kincaid Park. Also, I realized that even though it's one of our most favorite places to go on the weekends (and during the week back when it didn't get dark at 3:45), I've never done a blog post about it. So, here we go.
First off, we had total (kind of) success with Stanley and the moose!
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| I think Stanley's face is blue because he's not wearing a jacket and it's freezing outside. |
See the moose? Isn't she pretty? She didn't even look up at us. We always see moose on the other side of the fence by the entry to the park. I appreciate their desire to stay safe and away from people.
Ripley was excited to head back to Kincaid - we hadn't been there in a couple of weeks. He's also getting more used to his shoes. We didn't make him wear the jacket though. I think it's a little long and he doesn't like that it touches his tail. We may be in the market for a new jacket that fits him a little better sometime soon.
There are miles and miles of trails in Kincaid, most of which operate as cross country trails in the winter, or at least they do when there's snow on the ground. You can tell that there isn't enough snow on the ground to ski here yet. Hilltop is another spot where the walking trails turn to cross country trails in the winter. Since it's on the hill (get it?) we've seen people skiing up there, but the snow isn't great and the trails aren't groomed. In a way, this lack of snow is kind of good for us because once the grooming machine comes out, dogs are no longer allowed on the trails. I think Ripley's in cahoots with the weatherman.
Despite the lack of snow, it's definitely been COLD here. So cold that the little lake we like to walk around is frozen. This doesn't stop the hardcore fishermen though!
Ice fishing! I've never seen anyone icefish before except on TV. It's pretty much like regular fishing I guess which means a lot of sitting around. These guys were dedicated, too, because it was seriously cold outside; only about 5 when we went on our walk.
Check out the holes they leave behind. As you can see, the weather has refrozen the holes. The ice must be really thick on the little lake!
Where the snow isn't covering it up, you can see really cool bubbles and patterns in the ice.
Once I saw the guys out there fishing I decided I could overcome my fear of frozen lakes and go play on the ice with Ripley.
Shortly after we took that picture, he got brave, too, and ran all over the lake despite us yelling at him not to. I think he left his listening ears in Oregon.
As we wrapped up the walk, the sun started to pop over the mountains...this was probably at about 10:30 or so. These days, the sun just gets over the mountains and shoots right across the sky, setting about six hours later. In a couple of weeks the days will start getting longer!
I do like that the moon is pretty much always out. So pretty!
After our long walk at Kincaid Park, we headed out to run some Christmas-related errands. We made a stop at Bell's Nursery, where we heard we could get a Christmas tree. This is a big deal because I haven't seen any stands around town and I was worried we'd be stuck with a fake tree or no tree at all this year. Turns out that, for the most part, places sell trees from indoor locations because the trees freeze outside and it's bad for them. Who knew? So I talked to some coworkers and they mentioned Bell's and a few other places and also said we could cut our own tree for free from the Chugach National Forest. You just need a pass and the desire to trek potentially miles through the wilderness to get a tree. Before we take that route, we decided to try Bell's. Ho. Ly. Crap. Those trees were expensive. Now, I understand that trees will never again be as cheap as they are in Oregon because Alaska basically imports all of its trees from Oregon (true story! Mom and Dad, we should get something going because this is a serious moneymaker), but these prices were totally ridiculous. A 4' tree was $45. 6' tall trees were about $80 and anything taller than that was over $100. The traipsing through the wilderness option is sounding better and better. While we were out we found a couple of other places advertising trees for sale so I'm wondering if they'll be cheaper elsewhere. I have a feeling that Bell's might be the place where rich people shop since they also had $35 poinsettias. Totally ridiculous.
When we got back into the car, Ripley was being really cute and leaning his head on the headrest like he sometimes does. When I tried to get a picture this is all he would do:
Someone wasn't thrilled to be stuck running errands.
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